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This. People don't even have Windows 8 tablets yet, and the OS itself is still only available to MSDN subscribers. Once the OS and devices hit store shelves development will ramp up exponentially.

Most iOS apps weren't developed before the iPhone was released. They were developed as a result of somebody getting an iPhone or an iPad, thinking "Why can't I do X with this?" and then building an app.

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You couldn't even build apps when the iPhone was released. The web was our API, according to Jobs. The homebrew/jailbreak community started up almost immediately to fill that gap until iOS 2 was beta tested and released with 3rd party app support a year later. So yeah, by the time 3rd party devs were brought onboard, there were lots of devices in people's hands. The trick is to have killer first-party apps, which the web browser and maps very much were on the original iPhone. Nowadays, exclusive killer apps are a bit harder to come by.

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